Devotional

Seeking First the Kingdom (1844)“But seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness: andall these things shall be added unto you.” —Matthew 6:33A FTER our Lord, in the previous verses, had been pointing His disciples to “thefowls of the air” and “the lilies of the field,” in order that they should be withoutcarefulness about the necessaries of life, He adds:

“Therefore take no thought [literally, “be not anxious”], saying, What shall we eat? or,What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these thingsdo the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all thesethings” (Mat 6:31-32).

Observe here particularly that we, the children of God, should be different from thenations of the earth, from those who have no Father in heaven, and who therefore makeit their great business, their first anxious concern, what they shall eat, what they shalldrink, and wherewithal they shall be clothed. We, the children of God, should, as inevery other respect so in this particular also, be different from the world, and prove tothe world that we believe that we have a Father in heaven Who knoweth that we haveneed of all these things. The fact that our almighty Father—Who is full of infinite love tous His children, and Who has proved to us His love in the gift of His only begotten Sonand His almighty power in raising Him from the dead—knows that we have need ofthese things, should remove all anxiety from our minds.

There is, however, one thing which we ought to attend to with reference to ourtemporal necessities. It is mentioned in our verse: “But seek ye first the kingdom of Godand His righteousness.” The great business which the disciple of the Lord Jesus has to beconcerned about (for this word was spoken to disciples, to professed believers) is to seekthe kingdom of God, i.e., to seek, as I view it, after the external and internal prosperity ofthe Church of God. If, according to our ability and according to the opportunity whichthe Lord gives us, we seek to win souls for the Lord Jesus, that appears to me to beseeking the external prosperity of the kingdom of God; and if we, as members of the bodyof Christ, seek to benefit our fellow members in the body, helping them on in grace andtruth, or caring for them in any way to their edification, that would be seeking theinternal prosperity of the kingdom of God. But in connection with this we have also to“seek His righteousness,” which means (as it was spoken to disciples, to those who havea Father in heaven, and not to those who were without), to seek to be more and morelike God, to seek to be inwardly conformed to the mind of God. If these two things areattended to (and they imply also that we are not slothful in business), then do we comeunder that precious promise: “And all these things [that is food, raiment, or anythingelse that is needful for this present life] shall be added unto you.” It is not for attendingto these two things that we obtain the blessing, but in attending to them.

I now ask you, my dear reader, a few questions in all love, because I do seek yourwelfare. I do not wish to put these questions to you without putting them first to myown heart. Do you make it your primary business, your first great concern, to seek thekingdom of God and His righteousness? Are the things of God—the honor of His name,the welfare of His Church, the conversion of sinners, and the profit of your own soul--your chief aim? Or does your business, your family, or your own temporal concerns, insome shape or other, primarily occupy your attention?

I never knew a child of God who acted according to the above passage, in whoseexperience the Lord did not fulfill His word of promise, “All these things shall be addedunto you.”